Microsoft Releases Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter

Microsoft has released its Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter, a new tool for use with the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics, that could offer a standard new way for Dynamics CRM customers and partners to support development, migration, and disaster recovery processes.

The adapter, which is available for free and without support from the Microsoft web site, appears to be  more than just a way to push CRM data to production.  As Christ Hetzler explained in his announcement on the Dynamics CRM Blog:

Keeping Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 instances in sync has never been easier than now with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter. This is an additional adapter for use with Connector for Microsoft Dynamics that allows for the synchronization of data between two Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organizations. The adapter allows for communication between two endpoints that exist on any authentication/hosting environment (on-premise, online, IFD, etc.) This means that you can leverage this new adapter to move Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 data between test and production servers or from on-premises to the cloud.

Dynamics CRM professional Nahi Simon of Sentri offers up some interesting analysis of his own on the usefulness of the Instance Adapter, noting both its ability to support a development server stack (development-test-production) as well as to cover basic disaster recovery needs. 

While partners have always had ways to move customizations to production in Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft has not offered a great solution that mimicked the more traditional pushing ...